SNGF - Colouring Maps

The most recent Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from Randy Seaver is about what states in the USA and/or Canada you have been to.

The challenge is…

1)  What states in the USA and what provinces in Canada have you visited or lived in? 

2)  Either list, or make a map of them (at the http://www.defocus.net/visitedstates/us-canada.html website) and indicate the following:

*  red for states/provinces where you've not spent much time or seen very much.

*  amber for states/provinces  where you've at least slept and seen some sights.

*  blue for states/provinces  you've spent a lot of time in or seen a fair amount of.

*  green for states/provinces  you've spent a great deal of time in on multiple visits.

3)  For extra credit, you could make a map to show where your ancestors resided at any time (e.g., in 1900), or perhaps where your 16 great-great-grandparents or 32 3rd-great-grandparents married, or where your ancestors were born, all with an appropriate legend.

1) Map of where I have been

Being half American, I actually have not been to that many States, but I am pretty happy with where I've been so far. As my family is from Texas, I have been there many times. I have spent at least a week in  California, Utah, Louisiana, and Hawaii which is why they are marked amber. Colorado is marked red because I have only been to Denver airport. Does that even count? When I was a baby I lived in Virginia for a few months, so that one is blue as I have not been there since. Finally, Maryland is red because my parents say we went there whilst living in Virginia.

2) Map of where my Great Great Great Grandparents were born

The color code I used for this map was -

*  red for states/provinces where 1 or 2 were born.

*  amber for states/provinces where 3 or 4 were born.

*  blue for states/provinces where 5 to 8 were born.

* green for states/provinces where 9 or more were born.

Six were born in Tennessee, five in Alabama, three in Mississippi, one (Daniel Guyton Smith) in South Carolina, and one (Louisa Clementine Brister) in Virginia. The other 16 were born in Australia, Scotland and England. 

3) Map of where my Great Great Great Grandparents married

The color code I used for this map and the next was -

*  red for states/provinces where 1 or 2 resided at marriage.

*  amber for states/provinces where 3 or 4 resided at marriage.

*  blue for states/provinces where 5 or 6 resided at marriage.

* green for states/provinces where 7 or more resided at marriage.

Eight of my 3x Great Grandparents were living in Mississippi at the time of their marriage. Four married in Alabama and another four married in Texas.

4) Map of where my Great Great Grandparents married 

Two married in Mississippi, two married in Alabama, and four married in Texas. The rest married in Scotland and Australia.

That was fun! I think I might make more maps for my American ancestors. As my geography of the US is not that good, having a visual diagram like these maps make it a lot easier to understand! It really puts the states my ancestors came from in perspective for me, especially as to where these states are in relation to each other.   

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun: Ahnentafel Roulette

It's time for another round of Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, well Sunday morning for me! This week's challenge from Randy at Genea-Musings is Ahnentafel Roulette.

Here's the challenge:

1. What year was one of your great-grandfathers born? Divide this number by 80 and round to a whole number. This is your "roulette number."

2. Use your pedigree charts or your family tree genealogy software program to find the person with that number in your ancestral name list (some people call it an "ahnentafel" - your software will create this - use the "Ahnentafel List" option, or similar). Who is that person, and what are his/her vital information?

3. Tell us three facts about that person in your ancestral name list with the "roulette number."

4. Write about it in a blog post on your own blog, in a Facebook status or a Google Stream post, or as a comment on this blog post.

5. NOTE:  If you do not have a person's name for your "roulette number" then "spin" the wheel again - pick a great-grandmother, a grandfather, a parent, a favorite aunt or cousin, yourself, or even your children!  Or pick an ancestor!

Here's mine:

1. Dividing each of my Great Grandfather's birth years by 80 gave me either 23 or 24.

2. This led me to a couple of unnamed people. Instead, I picked my Great Great Great Grandmother Matilda 'Tillie' Gowan (1840 - 1908) who married John Young (1836 - 1888) in 1860 in Mississippi, USA.

Matilda 'Tillie' Gowan Young
Approx 1880's
[Source: Personal Collection]

3. Three facts about Matilda 'Tillie' Gowan Young

a) She was born on December 18, 1840 in Mississippi, USA to Richard Gowan & Susan Peacock. She had 9 siblings.

b) She and John Young had 7 children - Emma Rosalie Young (1861 - 1868), Matthew Garret Young (1864 - 1933), Mary Gowan Young (1867 - 1927), Susie Fannie Young (1870 - 1928), Matilda May Young (1873 - 1936), Terri Pearl Young (1875 - 1959), & Frank Richard Young (1878 - 1958).

c) She is buried in White Church Cemetery, Blooming Grove, Texas. Her grave says she died on August 20, 1908, but her death certificate says she died on August 21, 1908.

Grave of Matilda 'Tillie' Gowan Young
White Church Cemetery, Blooming Grove, TX.
[Source: Personal Collection]

Cousins Galore!

Last week, Randy from Genea-Musings posted this Saturday Night Genealogy Fun Challenge:

1)  Take both sets of your grandparents and figure out how many first cousins you have, and how many first cousins removed (a child or grandchild of a first cousin) you have.

2)  Extra Credit:  Take all four sets of your great-grandparents and figure out how many second cousins you have, and how many second cousins removed you have.
HINT:  Make a Descendants Chart with your genealogy software program!

3)  Tell us the grandparents and great-grandparents names, but don't give the name of living cousins unless you want to. 

4)  Are there any of those lines that you don't know all of the cousins names?  Do you care? 

5)  Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog post, or in a Facebook or Google+ post of your own.  Be sure to drop a comment to this post to link to your work. 

I love my cousins. However, I have no first cousins on my Dad’s side. They’re all on my Mum’s side and live in Texas, so the time that I get to spend with them is rare and extra special for me. The last time I saw my cousins was in June/July 2012, the last time I was in Texas.

Grandparents

1A. William D. D. Gow & Eunice Hazel Dyer had 2 children – my Dad & Aunt. My Aunt has never married nor had children. Hence, no first cousins on this side.

First Cousins & First Cousins 1x Removed
2nd Jan 2011, Texas, USA.
Grandad's 80th.

1B. Nancy Robinson & Herbert K. Renfrow had 3 children – my Aunt, Mum & Uncle.

Aunt Molly has 2 daughters, and my Uncle David has 4 daughters. That’s right, no male first cousins! My brother is the only grandson. Both Molly’s daughters have children. One has 3 boys, and the other has 2 boys. David’s eldest daughter has 2 children – a girl & boy.

1C. My Step Grandmother, Vivian Young, had 2 children – my Step Aunt & Step Uncle.

My Step Aunt has 1 daughter while my Step Uncle has no children.

Total

First Cousins: 7
First Cousins 1x Removed: 7

Great-Grandparents

2A. William Gow & Elizabeth Croal had 2 children – William (my Poppa) & Adam. Adam only lived for 24 hours, so no cousins there.

2B. James Albert Dyer & Eva Florence Mackay had 6 children – Claude, Eunice (Nanna), Earle, Vera, Noel & Enid.

Claude never married nor had children.

Earle had 1 daughter, Lorraine. I met her for the first time at his funeral in 2011. Lorraine has 3 children who I also met at the funeral.

Vera had 5 children – Noela, Shirley, Terry, Peter & Brian.
Brian died when he was 24. I am not sure if he had a child before he died or not.
Noela does have children but I have no idea how many.
Shirley has 2 daughters who both have children and a son who died in his 20’s.
Terry has 2 children, who between them have at least 6 children that I know of.
Peter, well, he has a son that I know of. That son might have children. I think Peter has been married a couple of times so he probably does have more children.

Aunty Vera’s family is huge itself and I have never been able to keep up. I still need to get her to write down a list of all of her descendants for me.

Noel had 3 children – Dawn, Rodney & Stephen.
Dawn passed away a couple of years ago. I am not 100% sure if she had children. I think she did, but not sure. Rodney & Stephen both have children but I do not know how many.

Enid had 4 children – Debbie, Gregory, Kerry & Leonie.
Leonie died when she was a baby.
I think Gregory might have children, but again, not sure.
Debbie has 3 children that I know of.
Kerry has 2 children, one of which has 4 children, and the other I’m not sure about.

Thus far,
Second Cousins (definite): 14
Second Cousins 1x Removed (definite): 10

Who knows what the actual numbers are though!

2C. Wiley Durwood Robinson & Maud Ella Sharp only had one child, my Grandmother, Nancy.

2D. Roscoe Eugene Renfrow & Ethel Eva Thompson had 4 children – Flora Nell, Roscoe Eugene Jr, James Calvin & my Grandad.

The Female Cousins.
Mum is the adorable little girl front right.

Flora Nell had 3 children – Becky, Betsy & Peggy.
Becky has 2 daughters. Between them, they have 5 children.
Betsy has 2 sons. One has 2 children.
Peggy has a daughter and son. The daughter has 1 son.

Roscoe Eugene Jr had 2 children – Terri & Larry.

Larry does not have any children.
Terri has a son and daughter. The son had his own son born in January this year.

James Calvin had 2 children – James Calvin Jr & Michael.

James Calvin Jr. has 3 daughters. One daughter has 2 children, one has 3 and the other has 1.
Michael has 1 son.

Thus far,

Second Cousins: 12
Second Cousins 1x Removed: 15

Total
Second Cousins: 26
Second Cousins 1x Removed: 25

The actual numbers are going to be much higher.

I seem to be more clued up with cousins on my Mum’s side of the family even though I rarely see them! While I was doing this, I updated my tree on Ancestry.com by adding second cousins once removed who I had not listed. I definitely have some homework to do on my Aussie side though.  

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Childhood Memories.

Randy Seaver from Genea-Musings has provided us with a challenge as part of his weekly Saturday Night Genealogy Fun prompt. This week's challenge is to share some of your childhood memories. The six questions are from Judy Russell's keynote address at Rootstech which took place last weekend. Judy asked the audience if they knew particular stories about their parents, grandparents and even great-grandparents. By asking these questions, Judy was able to show that these stories can be lost through the generations if they are not passed down. Randy has challenged us to answer these questions about our life, not our ancestors.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

The questions are -

1. What was your first illness as a child?
2. What was the first funeral you attended?
3. What was your favorite book as a child?
4. What was your favorite class in elementary school?
5. What was your favorite toy as a child?
6. Did you learn how to swim, and where did you learn?

Answers -

1. I don't exactly remember what my first illness was. I do remember being in and out of hospital as a child with terrible asthma. I also remember being in hospital when I was 7 or 8 with a really bad stomach bug. I just asked my Mum when I had chicken pox. I thought it was when I was 3, but Mum thinks I had it when I was 5 or 6.

2. The first funeral I attended was for my paternal Grandfather, my Poppa. He died on August 31, 2003. He was 93 years old. He'd been in hospital and then in a nursing home for quite a few weeks. I was 12 years old and in Grade 8 at school. We traveled to Sydney a couple days later for the funeral. I think I missed about a week of school. I was really close to my Dad's parents and this was the first death in the family that I experienced so it was very hard for me.

3. I don't remember what my favorite book as a child was. I do remember reading a lot of the Mary-Kate & Ashley Olsen books as a teenager though. Actually, now that I think about it, one of the books that Dad loved reading to me when I was little was Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown. There is a mouse on every page and Dad would put his thumb over the mouse to hide it from me while I tried to find it. Eventually I caught on to what he was doing and would try and move his thumb straight away. When I have children, I would like him to read it to them too.

4. My favorite class was Grade Four with Mr Woods in 1999. That year was a lot of fun. My Mum was also in the prime of her baking of American Brownies. I looove those brownies. She hasn't made them for a few years now, but she would always give me some to take to class, and Mr Woods loved them too.

5. Barbies. Definitely Barbies. I had drawers over flowing with Barbie related stuff. I had a lot of Barbie furniture and a Barbie car too! I still have the car. It's the cutest thing and I don't plan on giving it away any time soon.  

6. You know what, I have no memory of where or when I learned to swim. We had a pool when I was a kid so it was just something I knew how to do. I have a feeling that in Grade One I could swim a little, but didn't really master the strokes or feel confident with swimming until Grade 3.